Maybe both….

Is it his Indian nature or my English background that causes my response?

I am an Indian citizen living in the US. I lived in Malta between 1994 and 2004.

A few years back when your house was vandalized by extremists, I wanted to email you to send you my message of support. But I was unable to send you any message as your email was not freely available.

I want you to know that I really, really, really appreciate your incredibly courageous and conscientious opposition to racism and intolerance. I admire the way you ridicule racists and expose the falsehood of their ideology. I think Malta needs you and people of your ilk very very much. You are a beacon of good faith, hope and compassion. I have been going through your blog and I am very much impressed with the way you counter the prejudices of some of the less enlightened posts on your site with truth, facts and realities. I was in particular delighted with the way you countered the nonsense of a certain Emanuel Muscat ( remember the post about an Arab man and his wife in the vegetable market ) with appropriate ridicule.

Please remember that you are a liberal, and liberals are the conscience of every society. Malta needs you for the way you challenge intolerance, and I hope in the future you will write many, many more of your witty articles.

Yes, but why was this perversion accepted by everyone as if it was the norm? Isn’t it because in general we’re going the opposite direction of the Mintoff years: market is ok, public is not; the assumption being that the market will correct everything.

Anyway this was the last comment on this argument. I don’t want to come across as heavy.

[Daphne – The current abominable situation in public broadcasting exists because there is no understanding of what public broadcasting is for, or what it should be. The result is that our public broadcaster is right in there competing with private and political stations, and providing the same sort of rubbish service, with the exception of one or two good shows.]

I am not saying the Maltese would be happy with a Scandinavian model, far from it. What I’m saying is that in my opinion that system is the most respectful towards human beings, as opposed to other systems where economic capital is put on top. Mintoff’s negative legacy of nationalisation and closed market make the market-driven economy all the more appealing (opposite effect) since we’re yet to experience it.. other countries have already gone through this (Reaganism, Thatcherism) but they’ve discovered that it has dire social consequences.

‘He all but destroyed it’

Yes, Daphne, agreed, but I would expect that you, being a very intelligent person, would distinguish between social democracy and Mintoffianism and between ‘intellectuals’ and the ’emerging writer’ you mentioned in one of the comments above

And in any case, why would somebody like you, who believes that there is so much lack of logic and rational thinking in Malta, disdain the existence of ‘intellectuals’ … yes, they sit around but I think they provide useful disinterested (usually) insights and question what other people take for granted.

Finally, am I allowed to put forward an intellectual insight, please? Here it goes: the Mintoff biography programme provides an insight into why a market-driven economy can subvert values. The question to ask is: why would a company headed by Bondi and Peppi promote such a version of history? They weren’t exactly Mintoff’s friends. My take is that in market-driven economies everything becomes a commodity, even history. Thus when a producer produces a history programme, his primary concern is quantity (audience and profit) rather than quality (historical truths). This is so because programmes on TVM are not subsidised, therefore they have to pass the quantity test. Therefore everything is sweetened to accommodate the audience’s tastes as much as possible.

[Daphne – There you have an argument against the current perversion of the norms of public broadcasting. Public broadcasting shouldn’t be market-driven. But TVM is competing with the commercial television stations, and so it is no longer public broadcasting.]

Now you might think that the opposite is just as bad, that it’s just a tv programme, that mediocrity was always the order of the day on TVM, that quality depends on individuals etc. – granted. But aren’t intellectuals useful to point these things out once in a while..?

I understand that in Malta when you are perceived to be pro-working class/anti-business you are labelled as Mintoffian, but believe me I am not. In fact I think that Mintoff antoganised classes, and fomented tribalistic politics while giving few options for the working class to ‘grow up’, while destroying enterprise.

My kuntrattur bit was not about businessmen in general. It was about a certain kind type who hopefully are the minority. It is my impression that in Malta (like for instance in Italy), businessmen who are unethical are tolerated (by everyone). I am referring here mostly to building contractors; most of them cannot care less about building regulations, aesthetics and the surrounding environment.

This is so because we Maltese assume that businessmen have to put profit above everything, even above legality and ethics, in order to survive..and this could be a Mintoffian hang-up. We assume that laws are intrinsically anti-business thus businessmen can be excused when they break them. Anyway my point is that I am not anti-business but long for ethical business. In the long run, savage capitalism will have the same effect on businessmen in general as Mintoff’s legacy had on the Maltese working class..

And finally, Mario do not make Daphne’s mistake of assuming that ‘intellectual’ is elitist, anti-business and bullshit. Some of the best countries to live in have a very strong social-democratic and intellectual tradition (Scandinavian countries). It might not be as easy to start a business there as in the US and the economy is not as market-driven as it is in the US, but their quality of life is much higher …. I am mentioning this because one of the Mintoff hang-ups is that we now believe religiously in the market-driven economy, when the world is becoming more cautious about it (see US and Obama).

[Daphne – In the Scandinavian countries you mention, taxation is the highest in the world. Lots of people who cite the welfare state/standard of living in those countries forget to mention this. Many Maltese are reluctant to pay even for what they consume. I can’t see them happily taking home only half of what they earn on paper, however much they might get in return by way of social services. They’ll reason that they already get free health care and free education.]

Let’s not continue to be slaves of the Mintoffian legacy and instead start thinking rationally. What bothers me about Daphne is that her thinking is very much clouded by what Mintoff did to her (indirectly as far as I know), and this is understandable though I wasn’t yet born.

[Daphne – What Mintoff did to me is irrelevant. My story is pretty much the same as that of many other people of my generation. It’s what he did to the country that counts. He all but destroyed it. And that’s why I couldn’t stomach that sham biography on television last night. There was no indication of this, and I doubt that there will be in part two.]

” the kuntrattur….. made Malta what it is today.”

Yeah.. and a right fucking mess they’ve made of it. If Herbert Ganado’s book were to be updated (1960’s onwards) the new volume could be aptly entitled “Rajt Malta Tinhexa”.

Simon James Schembri:
“…The social fabric in Malta was not yet been eroded to the extent of other European countries. In Sweden little boys, once a week, have to go to school wearing girls dresses, and teachers use female names to call them. A little research will confirm this.”

I say Malta is top 5 to grow up in…”

I think someone got his facts from Ripleys believe it or not.

Just a small observation.. Whenever there is a report like this, the outrage is always predictable. People get so worked up about it. In any other country they would look at this report and wonder what they could do to step up to the next level, here people gets outraged and claim the report must be wrong.

Personally I do find the report dubious in many areas, especially in regards to safety for children as I feel children here in general are very safe (please don’t prove me wrong on this as I have a 5 month older daughter to raise here lol). But the concerns raised in regards to education should be taken extremely seriously.

What utter bullshit………from both of you I’m afraid.The only thing you people are right in is the statement that the so called kuntrattur ……..or buider in Maltese, came out of the working class. Most of them made Malta what it is today, and if they fail, the whole island goes with them. How’s that for an enlightended class?

I really believe that the best example of unity of purpose that cuts across these so called class divides is the Nationalist Party. You find everyone in it, from every one of Daphne’s social strata. The only problem is that more and more, its elite is eating the cream, whilst the rest suffer in silence, and still support the party, i believe, because they still have some residue of idealism or principle that motivated us in the ’80’s.

The MLP does not have such a wide cross class appeal, because most who gravitate to it have chips on their shoulder and believe in things like.. “il Barrani Hadli Hobzi” u “Mitna ghal Barrani” or such misguided ideas. They are usually more gullible as well. But wait. It does seem that many middle of the road people are developing aforesaid chips, and they are supporting dear Joseph.

[Daphne – Mario, the only thing you can be certain of with Maltese politics is that people with chips and grudges vote Labour and AD while those who have none, or who can rise above them and see the bigger picture, vote PN. It really has nothing to do with social background or education, not even happiness with one’s life or whatever. Nothing. I know at least one television presenter – very attractive, bubbly, popular, features in shows and print advertisements, who presents and comperes at events, who is the most absolute, unbelievable and utter hadra when it comes to politics. This was an aspect of her that came as a complete shock to me because I knew only her public persona and had only spoken to her socially at parties and things. And then I got an email from her out of the blue in the last week of the election campaign last year, when she thought her party was about to win. I was completely taken aback. The chips and hdura were incredible. Her name, in case you’re wondering, is Moira Delia. Would you believe that somebody like that has the spirit of a hadra? Why would she have chips?]

I really wish that we in Malta should stop looking down our noses or up our brows at people we perceive to be in different classes. This is a bane in our society that seems to permeate the upper echelons of government. We need to move on from such neo-colonialist ideas.

[Daphne – Actually, Mario, the complaints are the other way round: from people who feel a sense of entitlement and who think they are being ‘locked out’.]

Alas, our society is what it is. Let’s not help the status quo get more elitist and “intellectual” and promote class divisions, shall we? With the current economic climate, it’s the last thing we need.